Maria is gone, there’s no beating around that. She was in our lives, she made them better and brighter because of it, but now she is gone. It seems so easy to be sad. And for a time we will be. It will always hurt, there will always be an empty void where she once was. But we can’t live like that, we can’t wallow in the pain. Maria taught us to smile, to live like we had no worries, to live life to its fullest, to be the brightest shining star we could be. Life continues, an unending march moving through the good and the bad. We all have our challenges that we must overcome, that we can learn from so we can get better, so we can improve ourselves and other in the process. Maria stood for this, she believed it with all her heart and she would tell anyone she met, that life may be hard but it can still be a joy. Challenges will come she would say, they will come if we like them or not. So why not face them head in, face them, beat them and learn from them. Become better because of it. She wanted this for us, so let us live like that, not for Maria, but for us, though it will now be in honor of and in memory of our beloved Maria.